Nidwalden skier won the giant slalom gold jersey on Sunday before the Slovenian Zan Kranjec and the French Mathieu Faivre, bronze.
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The adage says it’s the difficulty we recognize the great champions. Marco Odermatt is certainly one. After two failures downhill (7 th ) and super-G (eliminated), the Swiss responded in a big way, Sunday, February 13, winning the giant slalom of the Beijing Olympics. He won ahead of the Slovenian Zan Kranjec, author of a second stratospheric inning, and the French Mathieu Faivre.
“It’s a dream come true,” responded, in the finish area, Marco Odermatt for her first Olympics in 24 years, sees his talent rewarded. “This is the happiest winner we could have this giant, this is well-deserved first place”, praised Alexis Pinturault, somewhat reassured his ski after his fifth-place tie with his team partner France Thibaut Favrot.
For the first time since the start of the Games, the snow fell in abundance in Yanqing. Several centimeters accumulated since the beginning. From the first leg, visibility was reduced. A nightmare for skiers. In these conditions, Marco Odermatt him already, who had been in the morning more at ease on the Ice River – the name of the track Yanqing – despite a big mistake halfway through. In the second act, whose departure was delayed for an hour and fifteen minutes because of the weather – an unusual waiting for skiers – the prodigy Nidwalden resisted the return barrel Zan Kranjec, while falls redoubled. Reaction pride of a champion while the pressure was greatest.
Two huge disillusionment
Because, in China, things did not exactly gone as Switzerland hoped. Whereas as the star of the Beijing Games, promised two or three Olympic medals, the leader of the World Cup giant intractable this season (4 wins and a second place in five races) began its Olympics by two huge disillusionment: seventh in the downhill and above all eliminated in the super-G, for which he had the sign favorite. In the finish area, he showed signs of nervousness. He usually so calm and smiling, that “it is impossible not to love”, as stated Fabien Saguez, DTN French ski
All already questioned. And if Switzerland was not up to the big events? He had indeed missed the World Championships in Cortina (Italy) in February 2021 (zero podium), and had cracked the month after the finals in Lenzerheide (Switzerland) in the match against Alexis Pinturault for the big globe. Marco Odermatt responded in the best way possible, in the discipline in which he excels.
Another skier, he became later on a man of major events: the French Mathieu Faivre. Double world champion in Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy) in February 2021 at the age of 29, the Frenchman had said to have arrived in China “with more ambition than Sochi and Pyeongchang.” On Sunday, unlike the previous two editions of the Games, he said he had no regrets and told her great pride to be on the podium with Marco Odermatt, the “gem of the season.”